Now, developing markets are trailing after most of their companies missed analyst profit estimates for the last five quarters and economic expansions from China to Brazil slowed to the weakest rates since 2009. A majority of MSCI World companies beat earnings projections, while the pace of U.S. growth has rebounded to levels reached before the financial crisis.

The only other bull market emerging stocks lagged behind was from September 1990 through July 1998, a period when U.S. shares surged during the dot-com bubble and Asian equities were dragged down by the region’s financial crisis.

Volatility in the MSCI emerging index was higher than that of the developed-country gauge during each rally, by about 30 percent on average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Emerging equities also posted steeper declines and bigger price swings than developed shares during bear markets, the data show.

‘Safety Play’

The current rally suggests equity investors are still hesitant to take on risk, five years after the worst financial crisis since the 1930s sparked a contraction in the global economy and wiped out $37 trillion of stock market value, according to Wells Fargo Advisors LLC’s Scott Wren.

“It’s a safety play,” said Wren, the St. Louis, Missouri- based senior equity strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors, which oversees about $1.2 trillion. “People want to own stocks more than they did a while ago, but they want to be a little cautious.”

Brazilian shares led the decline in emerging markets this year, with the benchmark Bovespa Index falling 9.4 percent. Light SA, a Rio de Janeiro-based power distributor, tumbled 18 percent this year as President Dilma Rousseff cut electricity rates by as much as 32 percent in a bid to boost economic growth. Poland’s WIG20 Index dropped 8.2 percent as figures showed the nation’s economic expansion slowed for a fourth straight quarter in the period ended December.

Economic Surprises

Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average surged 19 percent in 2013, the biggest gain among 45 equity indexes in emerging and developed markets tracked by Bloomberg. Sony Corp., Japan’s biggest consumer electronics exporter, jumped 73 percent this year as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took steps to weaken the yen and revive the economy with more expansionary monetary policies.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index advanced 9.2 percent since the end of December and closed last week at 1,556.89, within 1 percent of its all-time high. Citigroup Inc., the third-biggest U.S. bank by assets, increased 14 percent this year as the Federal Reserve pledged to continue its unprecedented monetary stimulus and the housing market showed signs of a sustained recovery.